Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Numbers, stats, and the disappointment of bees

Thirty-two books read thus far in 2015, not counting those read and reread and read again for work, of course. Nine hundred and seventy-four miles walked or biked thus far in 2015, according to the American Heart Association site which warns me it is closing down on September 30th and thus I should download my information before that date. Download how and download to where I do not understand and I'm doubtful I'll resolve those questions in the next six weeks. Worse things happen at sea and all the time in Africa all the time I'm sure.

The bee experiment is being somewhat disappointing. While a few more cocoons apparently hatched, most of them seem to have suffered from some sort of insect infestation. The cocoons had tiny little holes in them, there were some small bugs crawling about, and the cocoons themselves became very soft and squishy. I'll see if Crown Bees can tell me what happened but, well, it's a little discouraging. I think that I definitely saw at least one actual leafcutter bee on some flowers [photo not yet downloaded] but whether it's a female and whether it's going to create any new cocoons, I just don't know yet. We'll see. What I can say is that it seems like only wasps are interested in the beans and cucumbers. This business of being an urban farmer is a lot more complicated than it looks. We have, regardless of the seemingly indifferent bees, been eating cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, beans, and plums grown right here chez Aurora (aka Gradka Farms LLC) and that's something. Soon we'll be dealing with this year's grapes as well.

6 comments:

Well it *is* true that I wouldn't have to wonder if the goats in my yard were *my* goats or some wild goats that just wandered in. No, I'd know those were my goats browsing on the grapes and freeing me up from having to make grape jam since I wouldn't have any grapes left. But then they'd move onto things that would kill them. I think I'd better think it through again.

The bees have been a sad experiment. I have no idea how many of them have died in their cocoons. I hope some of the survivors come back to the bee house to raise families. Though we have plenty of other bees and wasps. Maybe our leafcutters saw that the job market was saturated chez Aurora and went off to other houses to work.

It's possible, I suppose, that they're working someplace else in our yard, or at the neighbors. It's not like we've actually spent a day watching the house to see if bees are going in and out. You know that's coming, right?